Retton was born on the 24th of January 1968 in Fairmont, West Virginia. Ronnie Retton, being a minor league baseball player and a college basketball player, you can say Retton had the athletic spirit inherited. She was signed up for dance classes by her mother, Lois Retton, at the age of 4 and into the gymnastics classes at West Virginia University.
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She was fully immersed in gymnastics by the age of 12. Her parents sent her to Houston, Texas, at the age of 14 to train under gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi. She enjoyed the hours she put into training. She had to train for 8 to 10 hours a day. In a Texas Monthly magazine interview, she said, “I would sleep in the Leotard on Friday nights because I was so excited about gymnastics on Saturday mornings.”